


Little Cloud

by kateykisses



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Madison Square Garden, mentions of the other boys - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 05:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/782480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kateykisses/pseuds/kateykisses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You know 'Niall' means either cloud or champion, no one is entirely certain, but I suppose this little one will let us know either way, I don't think any one person could be both."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Cloud

Niall James Horan had come by his name the very same way his brother Gregory Robert had 6 years earlier- his parents liked it. Neither of them thought at all about the meaning behind it until Bobby's mother remarked, upon meeting the infant for the first time, "You know 'Niall' means either cloud or champion, no one is entirely certain, but I suppose this little one will let us know either way, I don't think any one person could be both."

"I suppose not," Bobby conceded.

As a child, all Niall wanted to do was eat and run and sing and play football. Bobby often found himself thinking 'Christ, he's a cloud' and wondering how long his youngest son would make it in life with his mellow attitude and happy-go-lucky charm. Perhaps Niall wasn't a champion in the slightest, but could he always be a cloud out there in the real world?

As a teenager, Niall didn't appear to want much more than he had as a boy. His teachers always told Bobby "he's a bright boy, just doesn't focus all that well" or "he's very friendly but not that motivated" and Bobby sat there each time and thought 'Of course he isn't! My boy's a cloud! He was designed to float through life!'

Music seemed the only thing Niall tried really hard for. Football came quite easy to the boy, but he wasn't too bothered if he wasn't Man Of The Match each game, he did okay in school but never went the extra mile for top grades and then, one summer, Niall picked up a guitar. Bobby had never seen such a look of concentration on his younger son's face as he worked his fingers raw for hours every day.

Niall began to enter into his school talent shows singing and playing guitar and, more often than not, winning. Nothing made Bobby feel more proud of his boy than seeing his face in the local paper the day after. Even so, when Niall mentioned over supper one night that he'd applied for the X Factor and would he mind taking them both (and Sean) to Dublin for it? Bobby's first reaction was of fear, not pride or hope. 'What will Simon Cowell think of him? Will he be kind? What will the big wide world do to my precious cloud?'

And then Niall landed himself onstage at The Academy as a support act for Lloyd Daniels, a boy who had just been on the X Factor, who the three Horan men had sat and watched every week on their aging telly, and Bobby could see that spark of something... big, something great that Niall was standing right on the edge of. It was plain to see that Niall really did have the X Factor, and Bobby was brave enough to trust that his little cloud could really win the biggest talent show on TV.

And even after the mess of emotions that bootcamp brought Niall was so damned happy with these English lads that Bobby, hearing his son's cascading laughter more in 2 months of summer than he had in the entire rest of his life, realised that even if the band got no further than the first live show, his son's life had taken a dramatic turn for the best.

Of course, as One Direction stormed through every week he let himself glow with pride. As people stopped him as he went about his day to wish his Nialler luck, he replied with a cheeky, "he doesn't need luck, he's got the X Factor."

And then his son was proved to be a cloud again because he wasn't a champion, no matter how much he deserved it.

As well as things began to go for his youngest son and his band _'brothers, really, Dad, if ya think Greg' d be ok wi'me sayin' it'_ Bobby struggled to reconcile this passionate, dedicated, purposed Niall with a cloud and yet he couldn't be called a champion.

Two years later, Bobby stood in a stand in Madison Square Garden, the most famous music venue in the world, next to his ex-wife, surrounded by his son's bandmate's families and friends and18,000 adoring fangirls, watching his cloud sing so effortlessly, so beautifully and so happily..So _successfully_.

And Bobby realised his Little Cloud was a Champion.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what just happened. Comments? KKxx


End file.
